Priestess and Judgement Rank Up
by 1997.Trickster
Summary: Sae reflects on her relationship with Makoto. Based on the month of June. Spoilers!


06/21 [11:42 PM]

"Makoto I'm home"

There was no reply.

"Makoto?"

Still no answer.

Sae was now growing a teensy bit concerned for her little sister. Was she out with friends? Movies? Date? Who knew, but it was a weeknight and Makoto would usually be eating dinner or studying when she got home despite the lectures Sae would give her about the importance of sleep.

Upon the closer inspection, the answer presented itself and put an ease to the older Niijima's nerves; Makoto was asleep on the couch, most likely from studying. The textbook fell in a way that Makoto would have to put something heavy on it to straighten out the pages, the pencil in her hand was only a hair away from getting dropped, and her dinner was cold. Makoto was still in her school uniform so she probably didn't shower at all. Little did Sae know that her younger sister was out and about fighting shadows with her friends this afternoon and every trip to the Metaverse would sap Makoto's energy for the day. The blackmail from Kaneshiro certainly didn't help ease the exhaustion.

"Sigh… and you get on _**my**_ case about overworking…" Sae dryly chuckled.

She couldn't blame Makoto though; being the student council president and a 3rd year in highschool was indeed tiring. Not as tiring as her line of work of course but Sae began to recall countless busy nights studying during her highschool days. Least to say, her hard work paid off seeing as how she became a successful prosecutor.

The older sister still couldn't help feeling a bit jealous of her younger sister however, just being able to sleep soundlessly, the close friends she has, the freedom of being unbound by work and stigma; it was almost unfair. Why did she have to bear the responsibility while her younger sister got to do whatever she wanted?

Gently taking a seat next to Makoto and slightly moving her sister's legs, Sae, out of spiteful rebelliousness, decided for once she was going to relax for a little while and watch some news. Anything noteworthy about the Phantom Thieves would help her investigation and at least rule out some theories. That way at least she could get some info and relax at the same time, even if watching tv isn't the most promising way to get clues.

06/22 [2:28 AM]

"Hmm?" Sae murmured. She realized that she fell asleep a while ago and was half sitting, half laying down next to Makoto, more specifically, she woke up to the sight of Makoto's shins.

Time had slipped by the older Niijima sister, the tv was still on and it was almost eerie how the light emanating from it created a completely different atmosphere. A nostalgic one.

Sae began reminiscing the times when her and Makoto would stay up late watching case investigation stories with their father. Their mother usually disapproved of this habit since some of these stories involved drugs, sex scandals, murders, you name it. But Papa Niijima would convince his wife that it would be more beneficial for the girls to learn from these stories than to pretend that the world wasn't full of problems. Makoto usually loved these stories until the ones involving murder came on, she would sit closer to their father or Sae if their father was working that night.

There was one particular episode where a murderer came in through the window and killed off the whole family and Makoto, as usual, was paranoid while watching the episode; she wasn't having it that night. In bed, the younger Niijima couldn't rest knowing that a man could just bust through the bedroom window and hack away their lives.

"Sis…" Makoto breathed harshly.

"Yeah?" Sae muttered. It was the middle of the night. What could Makoto want?

"Can I sleep with you?"

Sae was tired and slightly annoyed by her younger sibling so without much thought she replied with "Sure".

Makoto wasted no time and hopped into her big sister's bed and succumbed to a deep sleep now that her nerves calmed down.

The woman merily snickered at the memory; of course any little girl that young would be scared of sleeping in a bed next to the window after watching something horrendous like that. She just thought it was so cute how her younger sister would spontaneously have vulnerable moments like that and almost felt honored that Makoto came to about her fear that night. Sae thought to herself that she wouldn't mind if Makoto even did that now.

But after yelling at her the other evening during dinner… Sae knew it would take time before Makoto would approach her again, it would take time before Makoto would even trust her again. She knew she messed up badly.

Getting up from the couch, Sae neatly organized her younger sister's belongings, laid a blanket down for her, and retreated back to her bedroom. She was going to need rest for another tedious day at work.

06/22 [3:07 AM]

"Sis..."

Sae almost screamed when she woke up to the sight of Makoto standing in front of the bed. Trying to steady her breathing, Sae realized that Makoto probably had something urgent on her mind.

"What's wrong Makoto?"

"Is everything ok?"

' _Well… this was… unexpected'_ Sae thought to herself.

"I mean! … You're not in any danger are you? From investigating? From stress?"

"Makoto is there a reason for this? It's kind of earlier to have this kind of talk…" Sae yawned.

"Well… I umm.. Had a bad dream… About Kaneshiro…"

Sae instinctively knew something was up but remained silent to see what other information Makoto could leak.

"In my um… dream, people were walking ATMs and he owned this huge bank. He was threatening me and said he would go after you first before anything else. He had this scary look in his eyes, it was almost inhuman… I-I just got scared from the dream… And maybe I'm being paranoid but I wanted to make sure you're ok."

If it wasn't for the darkness, Sae would get criticised by her younger sibling; she was smiling from ear to ear, hardly refraining from laughing. She honestly thought Makoto had some kind of connection to Kaneshiro but walking ATMs? This was surely a work of fiction, there was no way some world like that existed.

"No Makoto, I'm fine. Nothing of the sort is happening." Sae softly assured.

"Ok then Sis. Sorry for waking you up." Makoto turned and was making her way to the door when Sae called out:

"Wait Wait… I want to telling you something… Sit next to me."

"Um… ok" The voice of the younger sister trembled, clearly showing uneasiness.

"I know I already apologized earlier but I'm still feeling guilty about what I've said, I'm sorry again for lashing out at you like that. That wasn't right of me to do no matter how much stress I was in."

"I… I understand sis… It was my fault for bringing up _that_ topic.."

Makoto yelped out of surprise as Sae pulled her down to hug her little sister. The two were now laying down next to each other on the bed, both contemplating what to do our say next.

"Makoto you're the only one left in our family and it was foolish of me to treat my only kin like that." Sae stated, squeezing Makoto a bit more to emphasize her message. "I hope you could forgive me."

"I forgive you Sis" Makoto replied, returning the hug. "Hey… remember when I used to get scared of those shows? And I would sleep in your bed for the night?"

"Heheh yes, I remember. This is kinda like that isn't it?"

"Do you think… um.. could I sleep here for the night? The bed is actually big enough for two people now haha…"

"That's fine, good night Makoto" Sae meekly said.

"Good night Sis"

The two sisters slept in each other's embrace the rest of the night; Sae peacefully rested knowing she was gaining her sister's trust again and Makoto peacefully rested knowing Kaneshiro hasn't made any shady moves towards her older sister.


End file.
